Novelist Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994, who was distinguished for his writings outside the well-established traditions in Japan, has died at the age of 88, according to what the Kodansha publishing house announced on Monday.

Oye "passed away of old age in the early hours of March 3," the publishing house said in a statement, adding that he was buried at a family funeral.

Uwe, who was known for his pacifist and anti-nuclear views, considered himself from a generation of writers "deeply wounded" by World War II "but nonetheless full of hope for a new birth."

Influenced by French and American literary culture, his spiritual stories touch on various issues, from concepts of disability to the difference between village traditions and big city life.